


Movie Night at the Manor

by AidanChase



Category: Batman (Comics), DCU
Genre: Gen, Movie Night, the batbrats go see the winter soldier
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-04-23
Updated: 2014-04-23
Packaged: 2018-01-20 11:27:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,441
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1508825
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AidanChase/pseuds/AidanChase
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It's movie night and it's Dick's turn to pick. No one seems to understand why he doesn't want to go see Captain America 2: The Winter Soldier. No one except Babs.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Movie Night at the Manor

**Author's Note:**

> This piece is kind of experimental, stylistically speaking. I usually try to write free-indirect, sticking close to one character's voice to tell a story. This time I tried to keep a fluid free-indirect style and I'm not sure how it worked out. But hopefully it's bearable.
> 
> Basically, I just imagined Dick having a lot of Jason-feels about Winter Soldier (because the film gave me a lot of dick-jay feels)

Thursday movie nights were something of a tradition at this point.

They'd been started years ago at Dick's insistence on seeing Spider-Man, and that everyone else had to see it too. Dick's love of superhero movies baffled some of his family, especially Tim, who frequently felt the need to point out that they lived through far more interesting events, so why did Dick need to see less-exciting versions played out on screen? And Dick always countered that he would never understand Tim's love of "god awful indie films that have more complicated and ridiculous relationships than my own life."

Last time they had that fight, Tim snapped back that there was a reason the film Her won an Academy.

Of course, getting the whole family to go to these events didn't always happen. Sometimes Bruce insisted one or two remain on call. Sometimes Dick or Stephanie could convince him that for two hours they could all relax, and promised to keep their phones on vibrate. In fact, the only time there had really been a problem was when they had to leave in the middle of Tangled, and Stephanie had to be half-dragged out of the theater in the middle of, "I See The Light." She and Dick went to the first matinee showing the next morning to catch the end of it and dragged Damian with them. No one else cared to see the end of it, until it came out on blu-ray, when Dick and Steph didn't give them a choice.

And as the fights over which film and which genre increased, a rotation-schedule was unofficially formed, generally in age-order. Dick sometimes argued with Barbara that since he had joined the superhero family first, he came first in the pecking order. She usually won those arguments.

So the game went, Alfred, who usually forfeited his turn (unless a particularly fascinating foreign film was playing), then Bruce (who also forfeited unless Dick insisted he pick something), Barbara (who usually went with the latest blockbuster fic), Dick (whose taste ranged from anything from newest Disney film to latest horror film), Cassandra (who tsked at the inaccuracies whenever they saw an action film and generally chose historical films or family-oriented films), Tim (who always managed to find the most obscure indie films and art house theaters), Stephanie (who always went with family-films or romcoms), and finally Damian, who was not allowed to forfeit his turn no matter how much he protested, and usually ended up picking something they had already seen that "wasn't been so horrible it made me want to regurgitate my supper."

This month, so far they'd seen Frozen nearly four weeks in a row. Babs had picked it because she had heard it was good, and they hadn't seen it yet. Then Dick had picked it because he loved it. Cassandra had loved it just as much, and was just beginning to learn the songs when her turn came around, so she also picked it. Tim had made sure they didn't see it, but when it came to Stephanie they went and saw Frozen again. Tim had counted on Damian to pick something else, anything else, but Dick saw an opportunity and begged Damian to pick Frozen. Damian sided with Dick in the end, with the excuse, "Maybe if we see it one more time, they'll stop singing it." Though when they went and saw it for the fifth time, Tim caught Damian lipping the lyrics.

Finally, it was back to Dick's turn, and Frozen was no longer playing, for which Barbara and Tim both breathed sighs of relief. Bruce had picked Noah the last week, which the family had come out of with mixed reviews. Cassandra had spent all week researching the mythology and reading everything from the Biblical Old Testament to the Epic of Gilgamesh. Stephanie had shrugged her shoulders and said she liked Black Swan better. Dick had raved about Emma Watson, and Tim said he could see it getting nominated for things. Damian held his tongue, which generally meant he enjoyed it, and didn't know how to say so.

So now it was around to Dick, and everyone knew he was going to pick The Winter Soldier. It was premiering that weekend, it was the latest in the Avengers film lineup, which Dick always insisted they see.

So Thursday morning came around and Stephanie caught Dick at the breakfast table.

"We're seeing Winter Soldier tonight, right?" she asked with excitement on her face.

"Oh. Is it Thursday?" he asked back, sounding only mildly interested. Instead he studied the nutrition facts on the box of cereal.

Tim was on his laptop on the couch when Dick sat down and grabbed the TV remote.

"Hey, shouldn't we buy the tickets for tonight? I'm sure they're mostly sold out by now."

"Tickets for what?" Dick asked as he flipped through channels.

"I assumed we were seeing Winter Soldier. You don't want to go?"

Dick let out a long sigh and turned off the television. He got up and wandered out of the room. Tim wasn't sure if he was just distracted or intentionally ignoring the question. Both were viable options for Dick Grayson.

By now, word was spreading that something was up with Dick. Cassandra cornered him at lunch with a pointed, "What wrong?"

Dick looked up from his sandwich and shrugged. "Tired, I guess." He took a bite and chewed slowly.

"Movie?" she asked.

And Dick shrugged again before swallowing. Cassandra wasn't sure how to press him further.

Damian had a scheduled sparring session shortly after lunch and did his best. "I figured you and Brown would be lining up for seats by now."

"It's still early," Dick answered vaguely. "Besides--I mean, we don't have to go."

Damian landed his boot against Dick's ankle and Dick crumpled to one knee. That alone was unusual enough, and coupled with Dick's lack of interest in movie night was outright disturbing. But Damian didn't have time to press it, because Dick--distracted as he was--was still faster and managed to pin Damian to the mat.

By three in the afternoon, Stephanie was beginning to get anxious. "Tim, did you buy tickets already?"

"Well, yes, but, I'm not sure Dick really wants to go."

"Of course he wants to go. We've been waiting years for this movie."

"He seems pretty disinterested."

"Barbara will talk him round. Come on. You and I are going to go get in line."

"We're just going to sit, all day--"

"Bring your laptop, nerd. Let's go."

Barbara found Dick sitting on the kitchen counter, absentmindedly munching on a bag of trail mix.

"Picking out the M&Ms?" she asked with a smile.

"Only the blue ones," he grinned back.

Her smile faltered a little as she thought about what she had to say to Dick, but she wasn't sure where to start. He, fortunately, started for her.

"I don't want to go to the movies tonight."

"I know you don't."

"I heard Tim and Steph already left."

"You've never forfeited your turn before. I expect they don't understand."

"But you do."

"I was there too, Dick."

"I don't want to go."

"You don't have to. I can tell them--"

"I don't want anyone to tell them. It'll ruin the movie for them."

Barbara understood that. She drummed her fingers against the arm of her chair. "And what if we call Jason?"

"But Bruce--"

"Is already planning a stakeout. He's not going tonight. It's just us. I'm sure Alfred would be happy to give his ticket to Jason."

"He's not going to want to go," Dick said glumly.

"But it would be easier for you if he did?"

Dick hesitated, then nodded with a sigh. And as much as Barbara disliked the man Jason had become, she'd do anything to keep Dick smiling. And she knew the others would too.

Jason was rather shocked to get a call from Oracle with an invitation to the movies, of all things. And he was pretty shocked when he found himself accepting. He sat on the end, next to Dick, who didn't let go of his hand for the whole film. And he understood why. Of course, when Dick squeezed his hand tighter at the Winter Soldier's identity revelation, it would have taken a complete idiot to not understand.

Dick left the movie a lot happier with Jason there, and everyone was quietly sure that if Jason hadn't been there, Dick would have been rather sullen and irritable. Even though there was an underlying tension between all of them, Dick was happy, and that was all that mattered.


End file.
